Biography

Mexican/American artist who spent most of his adult life institutionalized in California mental hospitals, diagnosed as a catatonic schizophrenic.

When Martin Ramírez came to America in 1925 it was to get work building railroads in Northern California but he did not remain in this profession for very long. While in America he wrote letters to his wife and four children in Mexico and drew pictures in the margins until he was hospitalized in 1931 and diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was initially confined at Stockholm State Hospital, where he began to create his drawings, using whatever available bits of paper he could find, usually glued together with paste made of bread or potatoes and saliva. In 1948, he was transferred to DeWitt State Hospital in Auburn where he was to spend the remainder of his life. It was there that he met the Finish psychologist and artist, Tarmo Pasto. Dr. Pasto was taken by Ramirez's work and began to bring him materials and save his drawings. At one point Pasto even lived on the DeWitt grounds in order to observe Ramírez every day. In the early '50s, Dr. Pasto helped arrange four shows for Ramírez, primarily on college campuses, including Syracuse University. In 1955 he sent ten drawings to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum but never heard back from them. An intern found the drawings in the mid '90s and by 1997 they were officially accessioned. (quoted from American visionary art museum).